IRS Tax Return Figures Boosted By Upsurge In E-Filing

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

07 May 2003

The Internal Revenue Service has declared its recent drive to encourage more people to file their taxes electronically a success, with the numbers e-filing their tax returns hitting a record 51 million. The IRS free file programme has helped to boost the home computer e-filing figures by 27%, and traffic on the IRS website has witnessed a 25% increase on the previous year.

“By any measure, the IRS enjoyed a strong filing season,” acting IRS Commissioner Bob Wenzel observed. “More taxpayers took advantage of e-filing and IRS.gov. Returns were processed efficiently, and refunds went out timely. Our employees worked hard to deliver a terrific filing season.”

Several records were broken in the during this year's filing season, according to the IRS:

• Electronic filing. As of April 25, nearly 51.7 million taxpayers had e-filed, breaking 2002’s grand total of 46.9 million. With e-filing remaining available until October 15, the number of electronic returns will continue to grow.
• Home computer e-filing. People filed nearly 11.7 million returns from their home computers, a 24 percent increase over the total for all of last year. More than 2.7 million of these used the Free File programs offered through the IRS Web site by a consortium of private sector firms.
• Refunds. The IRS had processed more than 83 million refunds as of April 25, worth nearly $164 billion – a record average of $1,973.
• Direct deposit. More than 41.6 million taxpayers have already used direct deposit for their refunds, surpassing the almost 40 million for all of 2002.
• Electronic payments. There were nearly 887,000 e-payments, a rise of 40 percent over the same time last year. This includes about 180,000 more electronic funds withdrawals and nearly 75,000 more credit card charges.
• Web activity. The IRS site remains one of the most used sites during the tax season, with 2.46 billion hits, a 25 percent increase from last year. The 89 million hits on April 15 set a new daily record for the site, surpassing last year’s deadline day total of 78 million. A new feature – Where’s My Refund? – gives taxpayers immediate feedback on the status of their refund. It continues to be available for those still awaiting their refunds.
• Tax processing. Workers at IRS Centers had processed more than 95.6 million returns as of April 25, the earliest that this volume has been reached.

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